The Mystery of the Smiling Pig

Riding on the number 6 Tram line, I've often passed by a red and white sign that reads "SAU, SAU, HURRA!" with a big smiling pink pig.  I never cared enough to look into it further, but I thought it was a strange sign for a restaurant. Would a restaurant really only serve pork?  And it didn't look like a Metzegerei/butcher either.  Finally the other day I came across my answer.

While looking for a restaurant online, I stumbled upon this website: 
Freunde des Fränkischen Schäufele n.n.E.v

Its a club for people who love Shäufele!  How funny is that?!  (Shäufele is a pork dish using the meat from the shoulder of a pig.  Its served still on the bone so it has a kind of scoop-shape to it.  I've never actually tried it though.)

If you click on the link, you can see the sign that I was talking about in the upper left hand corner along with a photo of the club members.  If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll even see a massive pig-shaped float that they used in the Fastnachtszug.

I guess that's one way of keeping traditions alive.

"You Poor Pig!"

Germans have this thing with pigs. Not only do they eat a lot of them, they also consider the pig lucky--and they like to talk about them whenever they can.  Over the last two years, I've come to hear a lot of expressions that involve pigs, and whenever I mention this to Germans, most think I'm exaggerating.  As I'm not a polyglot, and happen to really only be fluent in 1 1/2 languages, I can't really say, but below are just a few of the expressions that I've learned. You be the judge.

"Armes Schwein!" = "Poor Pig" = I wouldn't want to be in your shoes.

"Es ist saukalt!" = "It is like piggish cold." = Man, its freakin' cold.

"Schweinereich!" = "Piggishly rich" = Filthy (or stinkin') rich

"Sauschlecht." = "Piggishly bad" = Awful, terribly bad

"Perlen vor die Säue werfen." = "Throwing pearls to the pig." = Being wasteful or not understanding the worth of something.

"Glücksschwein" = "Lucky pig." = Lucky dog, or 'you're so lucky!'

"Schwein gehabt" = "Had pig." = Sort of similar to the one above, you had luck, you were lucky.

They are pretty cute though, aren't they?